“Golden” won Best Original Song at tonight’s 98th Academy Awards. The Kpop Demon Hunters megahit sung by fictional group Huntr/x had already triumphed in the category at this year’s Grammys, Golden Globes, and Critics Choice Awards, and the Netflix movie also won Best Animated Feature. Mark Sonnenblick and EJA’s record-breaking chart-topper was the clear front-runner. Unfortunately for Diane Warren, it meant a loss in the category for the 17th time. She is now the most nominated person to never win an Oscar.
This year Warren was recognized for “Dear Me,” the Kesha-sung ballad from Bess Kargman’s documentary Diane Warren: Relentless. The other nominees were Nicholas Pike’s “Sweet Dreams Of Joy” from Viva Verdi! (performed by Ana María Martinez), Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson’s “I Lied To You” from Sinners (performed by Miles Caton), and Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner’s Train Dreams title theme. The category was presented by Lionel Richie, who won Best Original Song in 1986 for “Say You, Say Me” from White Knights.
Warren breaks a tie with sound mixer Greg P. Russell. He was nominated 17 times, but his nod for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi was rescinded for a violation of campaigning rules in 2017 — he was found to have called members of the Sound Branch during the nominations period. So technically he has 16 nominations and no wins.
Outside of losing Oscars, Warren is the legendary songwriter behind nine #1 hits on the Hot 100 from the late ’80s to the late ’90s. The first of those was Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” which she wrote with Albert Hammond for the 1987 comedy Mannequin. It earned Warren her first Oscar nomination for Best Original Song and lost to “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” from Dirty Dancing.
Although she was presented with an Academy Honorary Award in 2022, Warren has not been shy about her desire to win on Oscar night. “I’m a competitive person,” she recently told the New York Times. “It’s amazing to have the honorary Oscar — that’s harder to get than the competitive. I don’t take that for granted. But, yeah, I still want to win. My honorary Oscar gets really lonely.”
Warren has a good sense of humor about her dubious achievement, often joking about it on Instagram. And there’s a good chance she’ll get another shot in 2027 — this was her ninth year in a row being up for Best Original Song, the longest consecutive nomination streak for a songwriter.
Diane Warren has also been nominated for 16 Grammy Awards, winning once (for the Celine Dion-sung “Because You Loved Me” in 1997). At last month’s Grammys she lost Best Music Film to Music By John Williams. Check our 2024 ranking of Warren’s first 15 Oscar-nominated songs here.
